Paul Shufelt

Paul Shufelt

Food has always been my passion.
My formal career began like many before me, as a dishwasher earning extra money during high school. I realized early on how much I enjoyed this industry. After spending a year working in Montreal, I pursued this career more seriously. I enrolled in the apprenticeship program at NAIT and completed my education in 2001. Shortly thereafter I travelled to Switzerland to really hone my craft. I eventually returned to Edmonton, and here I am, some nine years later, as the executive chef of Century Hospitality Group. I have been in this industry for nearly two decades and have experienced a great deal, but the most important thing I have learned is that my knowledge of food is merely a drop in the bucket of what there is to know.

After missing out on our nearly annual trip to the
Okanagan Valley last summer we managed to get
down there to visit twice this year. Thanks to two
of our family’s favourite couples choosing to tie
the knot in western Canada’s wine country we
were lucky enough to squeeze in two mini
vacation getaways.

Here we are again, in the dog days of summer. I don’t know about you, but I feel like another season has flown by in the blink of an eye. It seems like only a few days ago we were unpacking the shed, cutting the grass for the first time of the year, and turning the soil in the garden. Now, as the leaves begin to turn, the days get shorter, the nigh

In the spring of 2001 I left the comforts of the kitchen at Buffalo Mountain Lodge, where I had spent the past two years working under my mentor, Chef Thomas Neukom. It was time to complete my schooling and receive my journeyman’s certificate as a cook.

While so many other local food writers are sharing
their tales of stuffing their faces at the midway at K-
Days, in search of this year’s hottest new deep fried
item, or waxing philosophical over how the Taste of
Edmonton could be so much better.

On Monday evening, in the large banquet hall of the Delta Edmonton South, fifteen of our region’s finest farmers and purveyors showcased their finest produce, paired alongside some of the city’s premiere restaurants, and some of western Canada’s best winemakers, craft brewers and distillers.

As I sit in my basement nook, otherwise know as my office, which happens to also be doubling as storage place for the mountain of paperwork I am behind on I find myself taking a peek at the corkboard in front of me.

I imagine after man created fire our desire to eat for enjoyment and flavor took over from our need to eat to be satiated. Along our evolutionary path it was decided that men would hunt and gather and women would tend to the home, nurture the children and prepare meals. Things have begun to change since those archaic days.

Spring is in the air, or at least it is in the way we Albertans can expect it to be. I have actually been counting myself lucky to have not had to shovel snow yet in April. As we replace the snow shovels with garden racks we also welcome back one of my favourite fish to our local markets.